10 Changes Your Small Town Needs to make Now
I met Andrew during our first year at Anderson when he meandered over to my dorm room and sat down next to me on the couch without an invitation. By the end of our first year, we had started a tech business together, along with our friend Evan, and had plans to create Anderson’s premier under-21 club—MAZE.
We had wild dreams of Andrew managing the floor and keeping the energy high while I sat in some second-floor office overlooking the club while sweating over the books like Veruca Salt’s father watching over his nut processing plant in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Both businesses ended up worth less than our campus food plans by the end of the following year, with MAZE never making it past the idea phase. And so disappeared my dreams of being a slimy club owner who wore purple and black suits and said things like “get him outta here. GET HIM OUTTA HERE” and “Look, pal, this ain’t ‘Howl at the Moon.’ No cowboy boots.”
Andrew’s Super Power
It’s been 15 years since those dreams went up in smoke—don’t worry, there have been plenty of other ideas batted around in that time—and Andrew and I are still close. He even signed my marriage license as a witness and three weeks later I was honored to sign his as the officiant.
Now that you know how much I love Andrew, I’m going to tell you what he does that pisses me off.
Andrew asks me questions.
Don’t Question Me
But they’re not inane questions or stupid questions.
They’re not even complex questions.
If they were dumb questions or questions he knows the answers to, my irritation would be justified. But they’re not.
This is one of his superpowers: Andrew asks questions that are simple and to the point.
Andrew asks questions about things that are often overlooked or, as with most cases, they have answers that are assumed and not explicit.
How much are you going to charge for those? Are those different from the ones sold by XYZ? Why are they red?
These questions are all basic questions, but the answers may have not been thought out, explained well, or challenged.
Andrew’s Track Record
Don’t get me wrong, Andrew also asks me questions like “Do you think dinosaurs helped write the Bible,” and then I know that it’s time to tell him I’ll talk to him tomorrow. (Ok, he’s never asked me that question, but when I send him this article, I guarantee he’s going to have a thousand questions/theories about the Bible and dinosaurs.)
Andrew’s questions are as challenging as they are revealing. Because they’re so direct, they make the person answering the question—often me—feel like a bozo for not having the answer at the ready.
And that’s what happened this past week.
A week ago, Andrew commented on a recent article or blog I had published and asked, “what changes are you wanting to make in small towns?”
I looked at the phone, dumbfounded. “How could this dude not know what changes I want to make? Doesn’t he pay attention? Doesn’t he know what I’ve been talking about since I was like 16 years old?!”
How Did I Respond? Eyeroll?
I put my phone back down and thought of how I was going to respond.
Then it hit me…
I didn’t have an answer. I mean, I had one, but I didn’t have one teed up. I didn’t have a response to that question ready to go.
I realized I had talked about the work we need to do in small towns, but I wasn’t talking enough about the actual changes or outcomes I hope to see—the ones I think will be the most transformative and sustaining in small towns.
Andrew was asking a question I hadn’t taken the time to slow down and ask myself. What are the changes I want to make in small towns? What standards or paradigms need changing?
Here Are the 10 Changes Every Small Town Should Make
Rather than respond to Andrew with a bullet-point text, I’m going to write 1,000 words about these changes, so that both he and I can reference them.
1. People Come First, Not Big Businesses
Small towns should not be held hostage by large employers, especially when they are not locally owned. Tax breaks, low wages, sweetheart leases and land deals, environmental protection waivers. No thanks. Our elected officials and economic development leaders should prioritize us, the people. And they should think we are worth more than crummy jobs with no long-term benefits to us or our communities.
2. Help Small Businesses Get Eyeballs
Economically, locally-owned companies will always be the better bet over those that are owned by outside investors or people in a state 1,200 miles away and have no connection to the local community.
If you go spend $10 with a large, national brand, only $1.40 of that goes back to your local community. With a small business, it’s closer to $5. (Source: AMIBA)
Which one is better?
Small town governments should invest aggressively in creating AWARENESS (vocab word for The American Townsman followers) around locally-owned small businesses. Yes, tilt the scales in favor of businesses grown locally by local people.
3. Small Town Culture
Small towns should be rich in culture. Whatever it is. Don’t half-ass what you want to be known for; show it off. (This is me calling out Richmond, Indiana. If you want to be known as the birthplace of recorded jazz, why are you putting the Walk of Fame in a place no one goes? Put it right downtown.)
4. Great Schools
If you want great schools, you have to elect a great school board and you have to go support the schools. I don’t know what else to tell you. It takes a lot of movement to improve property values to increase the tax base that goes to schools. It takes a lot less effort to elect people who know how to govern a school system, and almost no effort to show up to a football game, choir concert, or bake sale.
5. Free and Easy Fun
Whether it’s a lake, park, library, museum, or street fair/festival, there should be no shortage of ways to have fun for free in small towns. It doesn’t have to be fancy or over-managed. People just need a place to go that doesn’t charge them. Everything costs money; having fun in your hometown shouldn’t.
6. Affordable, Not Cheap
Small towns have gone from the affordable alternative to big city livin’ to being a “cheap” place to live. With the “cheap” moniker tied around our necks like a 45-pound plate, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of “eh, who cares?” when taking care of our town, our business, or our homes.
Taking pride in how we care for each other, our shared spaces, and our own places can change how we present ourselves to the world. The better we look, the more new folks, new businesses, and better outcomes we can bring into our towns.
Cheap is for tricks. And Trix are for kids. And you’re not a child, so grow up and take care of where you live.
7. BREAK FREE OF THE CHAINS
My idea of Heaven is never seeing the sign of another national chain dampen the brightness of a small town sky. Walmart, Target, Starbucks, Dunkin (sorry, Ryan), Panera, even my beloved Chilis—get ‘em out. Yuck!
Eat local. Drink local. Sip local. Grocery local. As much as we can, please choose local.
Note: Yes, I know, the big dawgs are cheaper. I get it. I know. We shop at Aldi just as much as we shop at Wegman’s. I get it. It’s too good of a deal to pass up. Your family’s affordability has to take priority above the needs of the local economy.
But can you find $10 this month to move from the big dawgs to the local guys?
8. Diversity
Look, if you can’t handle this word, then maybe move on and don’t read what I write. Because when I say ‘diversity,’ I mean, I want different kinds of people in my small towns. People who look like me and people who don’t. People who believe and worship like me and people who don’t. People who cook and eat like I do, and people who don’t. People who can do the things I can do and people who can do things I’ll never be able to.
When we surround ourselves with neighbors who are different from us, we allow for different kinds of expertise, creativity, food, experience, culture, humor, traditions. It doesn’t mean we have to dilute, hide, or get rid of our own identity; we simply get to share it with others and experience theirs.
It’s really that simple.
9. Functioning Local Government
This one is boring but necessary. Water, streets, buses, parks, emergency response, public safety, education, and economic development. Get those things right; manage them effectively. Any kind of extraneous, chest-thumping, right/left, red/blue nonsense has no place in the politics of a town that has 42,000 people.
Your elected officials should not act like celebrities.
If they want to grow their political career, let them do it by getting great things done for your town—not by getting their picture on the front page of the paper for being an obstructionist.
10. Young People
An aging population is the bane of many small towns. It’s hard to get young people and young families to move back to town after they’ve moved away.
Why have they moved away? In many cases, they left for jobs or education, found what they were looking for, and never came back.
Look around your town and ask yourself these questions:
If my child graduated high school, trade school, or college today, does this town have a job for them that is safe, stable, and good-paying?
Is that job attractive enough to keep them here?
Are there neighborhoods where young couples, families, and professionals want to live?
Are there amenities, restaurants, and recreational activities they can enjoy here in town?
Wherever you answer ‘no,’ it’s time to get to work. Because larger cities and great small towns offer these opportunities.
Is Your Small Town Making These Changes?
Take a look around your small town. How many of these ten items are present? How many are being worked on? Do you have local leaders—elected and otherwise—who are making strides in these areas? If not, what are they working on?
Maybe it’s time to take a page out of Andrew’s playbook and start asking your local leaders these simple, direct questions.
-AT
Adam Tidrow is a serial entrepreneur, expert in American business and economic history, and scholar whose work focuses primarily on local economic development in the American Rust Belt.
